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Comment by BrazzVuvuzela | Hacker News Reader

You still don't get it. I want the "channel" format of media (programmed video content aka broadcast programming) to die. Whether it's accessed by paying comcast to watch it over a settop box or paying google to watch it through a browser or app makes no difference to me, it's the same format of content and I want to see it die.

And it has been dying. Look at the ads the roll between the shows and it's clear that TV watchers are aging out. It's all hearing aid commercials and malpractice lawsuits' the only people watching TV through a settop box anymore are the elderly. Bringing that same format of content to youtube's platform, to be watchable on the devices young people use (smartphones, laptops, etc) is a play to make this format relevant to young people again. I hope they fail.

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It's like unbundling $20 CD into $1 singles. Be prepared for when you get what you wish for. Linear channels and bundling is all to maintain top level revenue. Demonetization will be the death of big budget productions like HBO. We will have more algorithm greenlit average quality content like what pads out Netflix's catalog.

What crippled newspapers as a whole was essentially unbundling. The local car dealerships didn't actually want to pay for foreign news bureaus in Baghdad but if they wanted to run an ad that local people saw on Sunday, that's what they had to do. The crippling of the classified ad market by Craigslist was probably an even bigger blow.

Now, it's hard to argue that people shouldn't be able to pay for just what they want. But now you're effectively arguing for relatively expensive a la carte rentals/purchases which I'm guessing people wouldn't want either if you want to keep revenues neutral. People may want to pay only for the media they watch. But they may not want to pay $5 for a TV show even though I was probably paying way more than that per show when I had cable TV.

I will agree that the current state of broadcast TV is a rubbish dump, but there's value in a "channel" concept.

If I'm inherently after a passive entertainment experience, there are situations where I want the decisions made for me. If I put on the TV while I exercise, or for background while cooking or cleaning, I don't need it stopping every 30 minutes asking me to choose something else to watch, and yet I also don't want it showing 23 seasons of the Great British Bake Off in a row either. I'll put on a broadcast channel instead.

I think they're still trying to figure out a replacement that gives the channel/network/platform leverage over content producers, much like control over "prime time" and fall marketing blitzes did.

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